Behind The Mask
by xoxkimmiexox
Summary: Is it possible to fall for two people at the same time? Adrien Agreste has that question on his mind as he knows he loves Ladybug, yet could he possibly be falling for Marinette at the same time? It can't be, can it? And while this is all happening he can't seem to notice how many times he sees Ladybug do the same thing Marinette does, or Marinette do the same thing Ladybug does.
1. Chapter 1

**Alrighty, so this is going to be my first ml fanfic, and I'm kinda new to writing so I hope it doesn't go too bad!**

Marinette was awoken to yet another shout of her mother.

"Marinette! You're going to be late to school!"

She rushed out of bed ever so quickly that her head began to hurt. 'Not now…' she told herself as she started getting ready.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Marinette asked Tikki as she slid on her backpack.

"Because you stayed up until three in the morning Marinette, I couldn't bring myself to wake you."

The black haired girl sighed as she ran down the stairs.

"Bye Mama!" She told her mother smiling and waving goodbye before going out the door. She guesses her father must be delivering a cake or some baked good. Marinette raced to school, her head was still pounding and she could tell half her body was still sleeping. It wasn't going to be that good of a day was it…

She reaches school five minutes before class starts and runs into her classroom. She wasn't sure if she was late or not and plus she wasn't fully awake thinking, so of course she just has to bump into someone right when she runs in. The klutz Marinette is, she ends up dropping all her books on the floor and landing on her behind. Well, at least she wasn't late.

"Oh gosh, my bad…" She hears a sweet voice above her.

Marinette doesn't even look up as she says, "No no, it's my fault I was running…"

She grabs up all her books and everything she dropped on the floor when a hand appears in front of her eyes.

"Need some help getting up, Marinette?"

This time she looks up and her eyes widen. She had bumped into Adrien, her crush Adrien.

"N-No, I-I'm okay!" She tells him, her voice pitch higher than before.

He shrugs and nods a "okay" before making his way to his desk and next to his bestfriend, Nino. Finally, Marinette gets everything into her hands and ignores the snickers of Chloe as she walks by her to get to her desk. She looks over to her friend and smiles, Alya was on her phone reading some article, most likely to be about Ladybug. It was kinda funny how Alya didn't even know that Ladybug was sitting next to her this whole time.

"Guys," Ayla suddenly spoke and poked Nino's back just to get his attention. "You know, the more and more I read about Ladybug and Chat Noir, and the more I see pictures of them, the more I think that they're secretly together…"

Marinette noticed Adrien slightly shift towards Ayla's direction, Marinette wondered why he would be interested in such topic. She shrugged it off and lay her head on her arms on the desk. Her head had not stopped hurting since she woke up and it was only getting worse.

"Marinette? You okay?" Alya asks her noticing her friend head down on the desk.

"I'm… I'm fine…" Marinette says yawning.

Adrien raises an eyebrow and looks to Marinette. "You don't look fine, what time did you go to sleep last night, Marinette?"

She was too tired to stutter as she would usually do when spoken to by Adrien, "Around three in the morning," she yawns, "why?"

Nino's eyes widen, "Why so late? Or early? No no, why so late?"

Marinette is about to answer when the teacher walks in.

"My apologies for being late class!" She says before starting the lesson.

Throughout the whole period Adrien kept glancing at Marinette. She seemed so tired and somewhat pained because every few minutes she would wince pressing her temple. It, for some reason, worried him. Why didn't she go to sleep earlier last night?

Once school was over Adrien decided to check up on Marinette, but she was already gone when he asked Ayla.

"Oh, she said she has loads of homework and needed to get it all done." Ayla told him scrolling through something on her phone.

Adrien nods and thanks her. He decides that later today he'd pay her a visit as Chat Noir. Soon he is picked up in a limo and is taken home.

Marinette had so much homework and such little time. She was sure of it that she was going to spend yet another night doing homework. But right now she just needed some water. She opens up a bottle and drinks it as she opens her purse.

"Marinette… You can't do what you did last night again. Look at the condition you're in!" Tikki told her.

Marinette shook her head. "Better to lose some rest than get a bad grade." She sighed telling her little friend.

Once Marinette had drunken the whole bottle and Tikki had decided to take a nap, Marinette takes out her homework and begins to work on it. She's not too far into it when she hears a knock at her window. At first she's scared and surprised but finally decides to go see who or what it is.

"Hello princess." Chat Noir says once Marinette opens the window, basically inviting him in he thinks.

"What do you want?" Marinette asks him, why would Chat be at her house?

"Just wanted to check up on you… Who is that in those pictures on your wall?' Chat asks raising an eyebrow. "He looks quite dashingly purr-fect."

Marinette's eyes widen, realizing Chat Noir was talking about the pictures of Adrien on the wall.

"O-Oh, he's no one…" She says shrugging not looking away from Chat Noir.

"You sure? He doesn't look like no one since he's all over you wall…"

Chat Noir begins walking around her room inspecting each picture. Her cheeks were on fire, yet she wondered how did Chat not know who Adrien was? Adrien was a famous model in Paris.

"Chat, tell me why you're really here-" Then a huge pain bursts in Marinette's head and she winces squeaked a small cry of pain.

"Princess!" The cat rushes to her side and quickly leads her towards her bed where she can sit down.

"I'm okay…" She tells him.

"No, you're not," He responds removing her hands from her temples. He gently runs his thumb across them and sighs.

"When did your head start hurting?"

"This morning when I got out of bed…" She tells him, feeling faint and weak.

"Just get some rest, okay?"

Marinette nods and lies in her bed.

Chat Noir shakes his head. He hopes Marinette will feel better soon. He takes one more quick glance at her before leaving. He looked so peaceful, so pleasing. He smiles and then dashes out the window.

Chat reminds himself he has patrol with Ladybug in a bit, that makes him smile even more as he goes across rooftops. Once he reaches home, Chat transforms back into Adrien and gives Plagg a slice of cheese.

"So you're not going to question why Marinette had pictures of you all over her wall?" Plagg asks him.

Adrien sighs and shrugs. "Maybe she's just another fan of me. Would explain why she's always stuttering and acting so strange around me."

Plagg said something while chewing causing Adrien to not understand him.

"Well Plagg, time to patrol with Ladybug." Adrien says smiling after about half an hour.

Plagg rolls his eyes and before he can say anything, Adrien has already called out his transforming phrase.

There, now he was Chat Noir, off to meet up with Ladybug to patrol the night. He leaves the house and begins pouncing house to house, waiting to somehow bump into Ladybug.

Finally, he does.

"Bonjour Ladybug," He greets her smiling and taking her hand to kiss.

She doesn't pull away and only replies with a faint 'hello'.

This concerns Chat.

"My lady, are you alright?" He asks her worriedly.

"Just a slight headache kitty." She answers him.

Marinette had had the same problem. He decides that this must just be a coincidence between the two.

"Since when have you had this headache?" He asks her, now curious.

"Since… Since this morning."

'Marinette has had hers since this morning as well…' He thinks to himself, his eyebrows furring


	2. Chapter 2

**Hola readers! Hands up for yet another chapter!**

 **I had to delete this the first time because something happened and the chapter looked really funky, so my bad!**

Adrien wakes up the next day at his usual time. He gets ready for school and takes a look at himself in the mirror.

"She looked really bad yesterday Plagg." He says frowning.

Plagg scoffs. "Marinette or Ladybug?"

Adrien has to think for a split second. "Both of them!"

"You know it's quite funny how they both got those headaches at the same time…" Plagg starts off saying, yet is cut off when Adrien shakes his head and puts him into his bag with a small piece of cheese. Once that's taken care of, Adrien waits for his limo to drive him to school.

.

In the back of Adrien's head was worry of Marinette, when he visited her last night as Chat she seemed ever so in pain, and helpless. Loss of sleep could not have been the only cause of that headache. Then came the thought if she had gotten enough sleep this time, because if she hadn't it would not have been very wise of her. Adrien realizes that they're pulling up to the school. He thanks the limo driver and gets out of the car. Then, he hears a familiar voice.

"Marinette, don't we have that partner project on the history of France today?"

It was Alya talking to an okay seeming Marinette.

"Oh yeah, we aren't going to be able to pick our partners are we?" Marinette sighs.

Alya shrugs and smiles at Marinette. "Just hope you don't get paired up with Chloe."

Adrien couldn't help but chuckle, he couldn't imagine how it would be for Marinette to have to do a project with Chloe. That second Adrien feels a pat on the back. Thanks to this Cat like reflexes, he spins around in an instant to see who it is.

"Oh, hey Nino. You surprised me."

"Sorry 'bout that. You seeing if Marinette is feeling better?" Nino asked looking over Adrien's shoulder realizing he had been looking in Marinette's direction.

Adrien thinks quickly so it doesn't sound like he was simply watching Marinette and Alya.

"Well, I was about to before you came and surprised me." Adrien rolls his eyes smiling.

"You can do it in class, c'mon."

.

Adrien sits down in his seat and turns back to look at Marinette.

"Feeling better?" He asks her with a concerned smile.

"Y-Yeah, I'm feeling much b-better!" She nervously giggles.

Adrien nods, "Happy to hear." He says before turning back around.

He could swear he heard a giggle from behind him and a faint "stop it!". Adrien was kinda baffled by the fact that Marinette liked him, because how all those posters of him along her walls. Reminded him of himself towards Ladybug. Yet of course her liking him solved his question of why she was always so stuttery and nervous around him. She didn't act like the other girls that liked him though. Those would always try to woo him or flirt, not Marinette. She seemed so shy and incapable of flirting, but that was only around him. He could see how confident and loud she could be at times. Interesting how she could switch personalities so utterly quickly. Somewhat like him when he became Chat Noir in a way. His attention was put back on track when he heard his teacher begin talking about partners for the project.

"I will pick two names out the hat and that'll be your partner, whether you like it or not." She smiles putting the black top hat on her desk. Adrien was fine with working with anyone, even Chloe. First a couple of names were chosen, he heard a groan come from Chloe when she was paired up with Kim. Then Nino was paired up with Alya, which led them to fist bumping. And then Adrien's name was picked along with Marinette's, causing him to smile. He didn't look behind him though, knowing that Marinette might be blushing or something like that.

"Projects are due next week." The teacher told the class before dismissing them. Adrien had to get Marinette's number or email before she went somewhere. Luckily he caught her right before she left the classroom.

"Marinette!" He calls out her name.

She stops in her tracks and it seems as if Alya has actually turn her around to face him.

"Y-Yeah?" She asks him holding her books in an odd way.

"Could we possibly work on our project after school? Your house or my house. Maybe even at the library?"

"You could c-come over to m-my place…" Marinette tells him smiling a little bit.

Quietly Adrien notices Alya creeping away, as if her job had been done.

"The bakery right? I'll tell my dad and maybe I can even walk home with you." Adrien nods

A noticeable blush creeps upon Marinette's face and she says, "O-Oh okay!"

He smiles nodding and telling her he'll see her later as he walks over to Nino. Squeals could be heard from the area he just left.

.

Once school was over and Adrien had already checked in with his father, he caught up to Marinette and grinned.

"I was afraid you were going to leave me, pri-" He stops himself before he can let out the word princess. Sometimes it was hard keeping both Chat Noir and himself and control, even though Chat Noir was himself.

"I wo-oudln't leave you." She chuckles as they begin to walk.

It felt nice to Adrien, having Marinette by his side as they walked to the bakery. He takes a glance over at Marinette. Honestly way back in the beginning, he didn't really notice her. She was just that friend of Alya's that was always stuttering and acting strange around him. It wasn't really until she designed that wonderful hat for his Father's line that he began to notice her. And then he was quite surprised that he hadn't before. Even though she was ever so shy around him, the way she stood up when she became class president was very impressive, it seems like as long as she's not around him, she's wonderfully confident. If only she was able to like him, yet not be so shy. Because then he would be able to have a great friendship with her.

"We're here."

Adrien looked up and smiled. The bakery stood right there in front of them.

As Marinette opened up the door to the bakery she felt more relaxed. "You can ask my parents for some snack while I go up to my room… and uh, clean it up so it doesn't look too bad."

Adrien remembered the posters of him on the walls. He nods and turns to the counter as Marinette runs upstairs. He tells her mom that he's just here to work on a project from school and she smiles while giving him a snack for him and Marinette. "Have fun!" She tells him. He smiles, Marinette's mother was as kind as Marinette was.

"Can I come in?" He knocks at the door of Marinette.

He hears her scamble a couple more things until her voice is heard, "Y-Yeah!"

He opens the door and smiles, all her posters were taken down and probably hidden somewhere. He hands her plate of snacks and smiles sitting down on one of her chairs. Hopefully this project would help them get closer, he really wanted to make her comfortable around him. Everyone knows the first way to make someone comfortable is to play with some jokes, puns.

"I'm _paw_ sitive that our project will be amazingly well done." He cracks.

Marinette laughs and groans at the same time smiling. "That, was awful."

"You laughed though."

"At how bad it was."

Adrien laughs and finishes most of his snack.

.

It had been around three hours and Marinette was surprised at how much they had gotten to. She was also surprised at how she felt a bit more relaxed towards Adrien. It was all the jokes he kept making, it reminded her of Chat Noir, and she felt fine around her partner in justice. So it kinda rubbed off on how she felt for Adrien. She wasn't really stuttering now which was great. Adrien liked this too, he could tell that they're were going to be great friends if their friendship developed more from here. Funny how it simply started by becoming partners on some project.

There was a moment while they were working that Adrien couldn't help but notice how beautiful Marinette's eyes were. They were so blue, electrifying yet soft and gentle. Blue like the heaven, you could even say. He kept feeling as if he had seen those eyes somewhere before, but he just wasn't sure where.

.

Marinette was surprised there were no akuma attacks today, yet she was realived of course. But still, it had been quite a while since there had been an attack. Once Adrien told her goodnight since his limo arrived to pick him up, Marinette had been screaming into her pillows with joy. She had spent the whole afternoon with Adrien. The whole afternoon with her crush. It was ever so amazing.

Adrien was also quite joyed when he got home. When he entered his room, he thought about how kind, and sweet Marinette really is. And she hadn't been too shy today. His eyes linger around his room when they land on a poster of Ladybug. Ladybug's hair, her eyes were so beautiful. Wait… Ladybug's eyes! That's what Marinette's reminded him of, it was crazy. Their eyes looked so alike…


End file.
